onOne Software

Enchanted Stream

December 20, 2012 by Justin Balog 1 Comment

Be honest, if I were to tell you, “Meet me at the Enchanted Stream”. And you came across this place, you’d think this is it…right…be honest? You’d be right…this is quiet little stream in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge!

Photographer’s Note: This is a 7 image HDR shot with my trusty Nikon D700/28-200 lens. After I toned mapped the images in Photomatix, I performed a few Lightroom adjustments and then it was off to onOneSoftware’s Perfect Effects and Focal Point. Finally, I performed a few selective curves adjustments and in Photoshop and called her good!

New eBook

A new eBook just hit the streets from the good folks over at Craft&Vision. The eBook, A Sense of Place, is pretty cool. It talks a bit about travel photography, but at the same time provides some exercises you can do at home. It’s pretty slick…oh, and beautiful!

Savings & Super Savings! For the next couple of days only, use the promotional code PLACE4 when you checkout and pay only $4 OR use the code PLACE20 to get 20% off when you buy 5+ PDF eBooks.

Click Here To Buy It!

Filed Under: HDR, Landscape, Lightroom 4, Nikon 28-300 VRII, Nikon D700, onOne Software, Oregon, Processing Notes, Really Right Stuff, RRS Versa 24, Travel

Bridge Over The River Zen

December 18, 2012 by Justin Balog 6 Comments

Today I thought we could all use a moment of Zen in our lives. This is a little bridge that spans the Koi pond in Portland’s Japanese Gardens. It’s a beautiful and quiet place that enforces strict ‘no cell phone’ and ‘tripods by permit only’ rules. I wasn’t sure about iPhone Photography so I asked for forgiveness rather than permission.

Photographer’s Note: If you’re looking for a fun way to manage cool focus effects without having to spend several thousand dollars on fancy lenses, you might want to take a look at onOneSoftware’s Perfect Effects. They have a cool tool that allows you to produce some neat effects. I used it here in this image.

Filed Under: HDR, Nikon 28-300 VRII, Nikon D700, onOne Software, Oregon, Portland, Tips, Travel

Just North Of Middle-Earth

December 12, 2012 by Justin Balog 5 Comments

So last week I shared a few before and after images to help new photographers understand the power of the digital darkroom. The images I shared were what I would call classic photography. I did some basic contrast and color enhancements. In today’s image, I went ‘HOG WILD’ and had some serious fun. I used all sorts of tricks from the onOneSoftware bag including lots of textures. I was after that ‘Hobbit Vibe’. Here’s the before image. I know it’s not for everyone, but I dug it. As an artists, I guess that’s what ultimately counts. If you dig it, remember you can always click on the image to get the larger version (make sure to click the X3 size) to use as your daily desktop.

Here’s the image straight out of the camera…..

Quick Question, I would love to hear your thoughts! What are your feelings about the digital darkroom? Do you see it as an place to experiment and try different things or do you prefer a more classic approach to image processing. There’s no right answer, I’m just curious what everyone’s aesthetic preference is?

Filed Under: Alaska, HDR, Nikon 16-85 VR II, Nikon D5000, onOne Software, Processing Notes, Travel

Myths & Legends

November 21, 2012 by Justin Balog 4 Comments

Have you ever been to Rocky Mountain National Park? It’s just up the road from here but I only make it up there about once a year. I should really get up there more. This image was shot in the Moraine Park Grand Valley. It’s beautiful there. A small creek meanders its way out of the high peaks through a vast meadow. What more could you ask for?

Photographer’s Note: This is a single image shot with a Nikon D700/Nikon 70-300 VR. I used a longer focal length to compress the visual elements together. In terms of processing, I used onOneSoftwares new Perfect Effects 7 (which is very cool). I added two color and tone enhancing effects followed by two separate texture effects selectively applied to the background. I then brought the image into Nik Color Efex Pro 4 and used the Darken/Lighten center to shape the light fall.

Incredible Workshop!

This was too good not to pass along. One of my photographic hero’s, David Nightingale, is also and instructor over at Udemy. He teaches a wonderful course on the Art of Black & White photography. I’m a student myself. If you are interested in taking your B&W photography and photoshop skills to the next level, this is the course for you. The great part, if you use the code BLACKFRIDAY you save close to 50%!

Take the course here!

Filed Under: Colorado, Landscape, Nik Software, Nikon 70-300 VR, Nikon D700, One Click, onOne Software, Processing Notes, Rocky Mtn. National Park, Tips, Travel

The Lone Star State

November 14, 2012 by Justin Balog 10 Comments

I’m not sure, but is this the reason they call Texas the ‘Lone Star State’? I shot this image on a photo-walk that was organized by some buddies (Dave Wilson & Jimmy Nix and Alex Suarez) when I visited Austin last fall. I spent a long time getting rid of my own shadow from the image. Can you tell?

Photographer’s Note: I was using a fisheye lens which allowed me to get close to the star and still fill the frame with it. In terms for processing it, it’s an HDR image created from 7 frames using Auto Exposure Fusion. After that, I applied some new filters from onOneSoftware’s Perfect Effects 7…which I must say is a very nice upgrade!

24 Hours Of Photoshp Contest

24 Hours of Photoshop starts tonight at 5pm CST. I’m going to be presenting something I like to call the ‘Snapseed Enabled Workflow’. The live event is totally free! However, if you would like all 24 Hours Of presentations, you can pick it up for $199.

Contest Details – The Quest For 10,000 Fans!

I’m on a quest for 10,000 Facebook fans. I figure if those crazy eCard Facebook pages have hundreds of thousands of fan, my page which is dedicated to sharing beauty and encouraging others to be creative should at least have 10,000 fans. Are you with me?

$199 Prize - To celebrate my quest and this event, I will be giving away a free ‘All Access Pass’ to one lucky winner. Yep, I’m giving away $199 worth of Photoshop/Lightroom training.

How To Win – All you need to do to enter is recommend my Facebook page (http://facebook.com/hossedia) to your friends. Tonight, when the event kicks off, I will randomly ask one of my new FB fans who recommended them. If you were the person that recommended them, I will give you the ‘All Access Pass’ and your friend will get a free print of their choice. Everybody wins! Heck, if you want to make it easy, just cut n’ paste this swipe copy right into your FB time line…
________________________________________________________________

I know the guy that runs this Facebook page and it is awesome!
‘Like’ the page and be entered to win a 11×14 signed print
of your choice! http://www.facebook.com/hossedia
_________________________________________________________________

The more people you recommend the page to, the more chances you have at winning. If you are one of those highly networked folks, and all 10,000 friends of yours like the page….you are pretty much guaranteed to win.

It’s that easy!

Even if you don’t want to win, I’d really appreciate the page recommendations. It would mean a lot to reach my goal.

Thanks,

Justin